CHAPTER 6
Ethan stood at the luggage carousel waiting for his grandma’s bright yellow and pink polka dot suitcases to roll by. They wouldn’t be hard to spot. Nana loved bold, vibrant prints. Her last set of luggage had been zebra striped. When he didn’t see it, he checked his phone. Again.
He’d run into Jess’s dad at the Gas ’N Go this morning and John told him that she had a doctor’s appointment today. She hadn’t mentioned anything about it the night before. Not that she would. She never talked about her health and always seemed irritated when he asked about it.
It was her two-year checkup, and her dad said that everything should be fine, but he’d seen in his eyes that he was worried. And Ethan was right there with him.
As sure as he was that everything was okay, he’d still feel better once he had confirmation. So he’d texted Jess before he’d left for the airport to check in. That was over four hours ago. He’d still had no response.
“What’s the score?” his grandma asked.
“Huh?”
“I figured the Sox must be playin’ since you’ve checked that thing about a dozen times in the last ten minutes.”
“Oh, no… it’s just….”
He wasn’t a great liar, and he especially hated lying to his nana, but he didn’t want to tell her he was worried about Jess. That would lead to a conversation he didn’t feel like having. Thankfully, her attention was elsewhere.
Using his arm for support, she lifted up on her tiptoes, making her a whopping five feet tall and craned her neck as she searched the crowd. “Do you see her?”
There had been a medical emergency on the flight and Dr. Susie, as his grandma was now referring to her, had stayed on the plane to deal with it while everyone else disembarked.
“I don’t know what she looks like,” Ethan pointed out.
“I told you, a young Patty Duke.”
“That doesn’t help.”
He didn’t see a young Patty Duke, whatever that even looked like, but he did see Nana’s luggage. The bright yellow and pink suitcase rolled by and he started to reach for it.
“That’s not mine.” She swatted his hand away.
He glanced at her, and she gave him “the look.” The one that still made him feel about two feet tall and kept him from arguing with her.
“Yes, ma’am.” He stepped back, knowing full well that that was her luggage and she was stalling.
He picked up his phone again, still no response from Jess. He checked her Instagram and saw that she’d posted a picture of one of her cats sunbathing with the caption Elvis Pawsley living his purrfect life.
The woman loved puns.
It was posted an hour ago, which meant she was home and that she’d been on her phone.
“Oh, there she is!” Nana started waving her hands up in the air. “Dr. Susie!”
He put his phone away and watched a woman with light brown hair, and a wide, pretty smile make her way through the crowded terminal toward them. “Hi, Daisy! I thought I might’ve missed you.”
“Nope, still here. We’ve just been waiting for our luggage. Dr. Susie, this is my grandson, Ethan. Ethan, this is Dr. Susie.”
The woman held out her hand, “Susie is fine.”
“Hi, Susie, it’s nice to meet you.” Ethan shook the woman’s hand and felt nothing in the contact. Not like the explosive fireworks that had gone off last night between him and Jess when she’d touched his arm.
“You too.”
After a few awkward moments, Susie’s smile lifted higher. “Well, it was nice meeting you.”
“You, too.”
“Ethan’s on Facebook. You two should be friends.” Nana waved her hand between them before pointing at Susie. “You should send him a request.”
“Okay,” she politely responded.
Dr. Susie had been a good sport and humored his grandma, but Ethan could tell she was as interested in sending him a friend request as he was to accept it.
“But don’t be offended if he doesn’t respond right away.” Nana hurried to explain, “He’s busy with his dangerous job.”
His brow furrowed as he gave his grandma a questioning look.
“Dr. Mallory?”
Ethan looked up to see a woman standing to his left with luggage in her hand.
“I have your luggage, and the car is waiting for you.”
“Okay. Well, it was so nice meeting you. And Daisy, don’t forget to send me those pictures.”
The woman hugged his grandma and waved at him before disappearing into the crowd.
“Oh, there’s my bag!” Gran pointed to the exact bag he’d tried to retrieve earlier.
He chose not to comment.
“So what did you think?” She elbowed him as they made their way to the parking structure. “She’s beautiful, right? And she’s a big deal, too. Did you see that she had someone picking her up and getting her bag?”
“You have someone picking you up and getting your bag.”
That comment earned him a quick swat to his chest. “You know what I mean. What did you think?”
“She seems…nice.”
“Nice? Did you see that caboose? That’s better than nice.”
“Nana!”
“What? She has a nice badonkadonk.”
“Where did you hear that?”
“The news.”
Ah. Had to be either E! News or TMZ, his nana’s most trusted “news” outlets.
“I think they were talking about one of those Kardashian girls.” She placed her hand on his forearm as they came to the crosswalk and she looked both ways. Some things his nana did drove him crazy, but he thought it was sweet that she still tried to protect him from oncoming traffic.
When she deemed it was clear, they crossed. “Why didn’t you wear your uniform?”
“Because I’m not on duty.”
“Well, you might’ve screwed the pooch. Dr. Susie loves a man in uniform and likes a little danger in her life.” She shimmied her shoulders and wagged her brows.
“And you know this how?”
“Tequila,” Nana stated plainly.
Ethan looked at her, shocked.
“What? I wanted the inside scoop. But fat lotta good it did me, you blew it.”
“Sorry.” He wasn’t sorry.
“Don’t you want to settle down? Have a wife? Maybe some kiddos?”
He knew that she worried he was going to be a perpetual bachelor like his dad. She’d said as much on several occasions. The thing was, even if that was passed genetically he wouldn’t be in danger of inheriting the trait since he didn’t share any DNA with Samuel Steele. When his dad, Sam, was a rookie in Chicago, he’d found a baby abandoned in an alley behind a crack house. Sam took the baby to the hospital and named him. He kept tabs on him as he made the rounds through foster care. When Ethan was four, Sam discovered that the foster house he was living at was abusive.
So Ethan went to live with Sam, and his dad started adoption proceedings. It had taken a couple of years, but by the time Ethan was six, he’d been adopted by the only parent he’d ever known. Their life together had been great. Sam was a great dad. He’d taken him to Sox and Bears games and gave him love and a stable home. Yes, there was always a woman in his dad’s life, and they rotated every few months. Ethan didn’t think much of it at the time, he was just so happy to have a stable home, but as an adult, he realized that his dad had been a perpetual bachelor.
Then, when Ethan was twelve, his dad had been killed in the line of duty, and he’d come to live with Nana in Whisper Lake. It had been quite a culture shock, since he’d only visited the small town a handful of times when his dad was alive and those were only quick day trips. But Nana had done her best to make him feel at home. They may not have been blood-related, but she’d always treated him like a true grandson. He owed so much to her. Not only for taking him in, but for raising a man that would adopt a baby he found beside a dumpster.
For the past couple of years, Nana had upped the pressure on him to settle down. Ethan had never been quite the ladies’ man that his dad had, but he’d also never let things get serious with anyone he dated. As soon as he felt things were moving in a commitment direction, he moved on. But that’s because he wasn’t with the one woman he wanted a commitment with.
“What about Kennedy Dawes? I heard that you’ve been seeing her?”
“I’m not seeing Kennedy, no matter how many times The Needlepoint Mafia tries to throw us together.”
“They just give little pushes.”
Nana was not a card-carrying member of the matchmaking dons knitting club, but that was only because she had arthritis. She was thick as thieves with Mrs. Chen, Mrs. Dobrinski, and Mrs. Weathersby. The four women played bridge together every Saturday.
And that made him think. “Did you put them up to this?”
“And if I did? Would that be so bad? I just want my grandson to be happy!”
He knew then at that moment that it was not going to stop. It would’ve been bad enough if the old women had done it solely on their own. But now that he knew that his grandma was behind it, he knew that the only way to stop the matchmaking madness was to start dating someone.
The problem with that was, he didn’t want to date anyone except…
An idea struck him that he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of sooner. Jess wasn’t the girl that he could woo with flowers, pretty words, or promises. She wasn’t going to willingly agree to a romantic dinner with him. But, she might agree to a fake relationship, if there was something in it for her. It was the in he’d been waiting for, now he just needed the right leverage.